Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-07-15
The SECTIONAL Party.

The sectional Party.
The attempt Of the Republican lead
crs TO make party capital ont Of ADJ
tant DRUM's order concerning the Con-
fcderate flags captured in battle during
the war between the States is another
proof that the Republican party is a
sectional party and ought never TO be
permitted again TO control the destinies
Of this great republic. 1t testfies that
an old dog cannot learn new tricks. II
shows that EPHBAIM is joined 10 his Sec
tional idols. 1t warns the patriots of
this country that if they desire ga
union of hearts and a union of hands"
they must not entrust the Government
to the Republican or sectional party.
With what object in view was the war
between the States carried on by the
General Government ? To perpetuate
the Union. What sort of union
Were thousands of millions of dollars
expended, and hundreds of thousands
of lives sacrificed, i'll order to establish
a union consisting partly of free and
Independent States, and partly of sub
jected provinces? Do the Republican
leaders express the wishes of the north
cTn people when they talk as if the
southern States had no rights which the
northern States were bound to respect? |
If it were possible to fetter one third |
Of the States Of the Union, and deny |
10 them even a single right which was |
not denied to the other two thirds, it |
would not be long before the two thirds
would be suffering from the very evils |
which their malignity, sectionalism,
want of patriotism, and shortsighted-
ness had brought upon themselves in
bringing them upon the one third.
II has been said a thousand times
that the Republican party was war
party and ought to have died as soon
as the war ended. 1t has outlived its
day and generation. 1t has survived
its usefulness, if indeed it has not al
ways during its existence done more
harm than good, and menaced the per-
petuity of the free institutions which
our fathers confidently believed they
had established in this land. More
than twenty years ago the clash of arms
came TO an end, yet to-day the unpa-
triotic, wicked leaders of the Republican
party are actively engaged in seeking
to fan the flames of sectional discord.
There is no sincerity whatever in
these demonstrations of sectional hate.
If the Republican party had had any
following worth mentioning among the
southern whites-if, to use General
MAHoNR's phrase. there had been ten
years ago white Republicans enough in
the South to officer the negroes"
sectional appeals would ere now have
gone ont of fashion with the Republi-
can leaders. Unfortunately one third of
the voters in the South are negroes abso-
lutely destitute of State pride, and as
bitter enemies Of the southern "rebels"
rs SHERMAN, or FORAKER, or BLAINE, or
any other northern malignant. These
negroes constitute the strength of the
Republican party in the South, and
rather rejoice than complain when
southern men are denounced as un-
repentant rebels" and the southern
States treated as if they were mere
satrapies of the National Government.
The Republican leaders, therefore,
caring not straw for the few southern
whites who are their allies, strange
alliance, indeed, for white men-never
intermit their endeavors to consolidate
the northern vote as against the south
ern.
is ours can indissoluble union Of in
destructible States -? Then let the
party of the bloody-shirt brigade be
once for oil buried out of sight. Let
that gangof malignants be ignominious-
" defeated next year, and the day OF
sectional discord, hatred, and con-
fusion will have terminated, and this
country will no longer present to the
world the spectacle which DANIEL
WEBSTER said he never wanted to be-
hold. "When," said that great states
man, "when my eyes shall be turned to
behold for the last time the snn in
Heaven. -nay / not see him shining
on the broken and disfgured fragments
of a once-glorious union; on States
discovered, discordant, belligerent on
a land rent with civil feuds.
Let their last feeble and lingering
glance rather behold the gorgeous en-
sign of the republic, now known and
honored throughout the earth, still
high advanced, its arms and trophies
streaming in their original lustre, not
sstripe erased or polluted, nor a single
star obscured."